Being at Home in the New Places We Fish

When ever I fish new waters in a new place I can feel kind of lost. I may not feel "at home" in a strange place.

What is comforting however is that I can often apply some basic principles of fly-fishing combined with instinct, in order to find my "place" among the fish in the river.

I search for fish hoping to sight them holding in the pools, runs and under seam lines. If I cannot directly see the fish I can try to read the water and predict where they might be holding.

I use multiple nymph rigs using three different searching patterns. Everyone has their favorites. I most often use a San Juan worm (brown or red), a bead-head Pheasant tail, and a small midge such as a black zebra midge, or an RS2.

When I fish with familiar flies and techniques I kind of feel at home regardless of where I fish. When I can sight fish and watch a fish take my "go-to" fly, for a brief moment I am no longer a stranger wandering in a strange land.